Death's Embrace
by roosting-ninja
Summary: When death is closing in what do we think about? An IchiXSoi oneshot


Hey first story. I guess I should say I don't own anything. Well I don't, unfortunately.

Okay thoughts will hopefully be enclosed with these ' ' and in italics ex. _ 'What is he doing'_

Speech is in quotations and in regular text ex. "I like pie"

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She could feel it, the slow,creeping darkness closing in her. The energy was leaving her so quickly. It was then that she realized that this particular forest in the Rukongai looked so beautiful. The leaves seem to hang off the trees in a way that would make them seem almost luminescent. Of course, that could just be her mind creating the imaginary light she might be staring at. Soifon had been the captain of the stealth force for nearly ninety years but she couldn t have prepared herself for this confrontation with him. She glanced down to see that the beast was still crushing her windpipe in an iron grip. Trying to gasp for air only made it squeeze harder.

Then she tried to get a better view of him. His mask was a plain white with two vertical red lines running down each side of his visage. The sclera of his eyes have turned into the purest black while the irises mutated to a burning amber. His torn shihakusho revealed his strong upper body. The bleached skin that covered his body seemed almost like an armor plate. Then there was the jagged red markings seemingly etched into the pale hull that encompassed his body. These dark crimson colors were hard to distinguish from the blood of slain soul reapers that had dried onto his armor. The toes and fingers on his hands and feet were elongated into claws for the tearing of flesh. The only thing that let her know of the man it used to be was the bright orange hair. It protruded from the back of it s head and came down to the small of its back.

"Kur...o...saki." She managed to choke out before her vision faded out again.

Soifon opened her eyes to the sight of that same forest but the creature was gone. As she got to her feet she immediately recognized all of her wounds were gone.

_'What happened? Where did he go?'_ She began to dust herself off but when she heard a rustle in the bush behind her. She immediately tensed up. "Who's there?" This was met with the excited giggles of a child. Soifon began to inch closer to the source of the sound.

Suddenly, "Mommy!" A child launched out from behind a tree to her left. Soifon, shocked, eased herself and held her arms out to catch the child. She caught the little girl easily but then said girl began to squeeze her chanting, "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" Soifon tried to calm the child down but she just couldn't. 'How can one child have this much energy!' She thought to herself.

Soifon then noticed the girl was wearing a plain purple kimono tied with a dark yellow sash.. The girl's skin was..._ 'White? How can that be?'_ she thought to herself. It wasn't just her skin either. Her body in its entirety was white. A silhouette of a child. Her only defining feature was her mouth. A single canine tooth protruded comically from behind her upper lip. Soifon was brought back from her thoughts when the girl began to tug on one of the twin braids that hung down her back.

"Hey calm down you little brat!" She exclaimed seemingly pissed off.

The girl calmed down and began to cry. "Mommy why are you being so mean?"

"Sorry kid, but i don t have any children." Soifon replied with her usual emotionless tone.

"Yes you do! You and daddy had me this many years ago!" The girl held up four fingers Soifon was getting irritated. She knew she didn't have any kids and yet here this child was trying to make her look like an idiot.

With a sigh she said, "Fine if you're my daughter, then could you take me to see your father?"

The girl perked up again and squealed, "Sure I can!" With that she squirmed out of Soifon s grip and began to run deeper into the forest gleefully yelling, "Keep up mommy!"

Soifon began to chase the child. 'Damn. I barely met her and she s already a handful.'

After a few minutes she came to a clearing with a cherry tree in full bloom in the middle. She could see the girl running around the tree, "Daddy! Daddy! Mommy s here!" There was a man reclining against the tree. Soifon recognized him. Those deep brown eyes, that orange hair, and that stupid, cocky grin on his face. "Kurosaki." He stood up and began to walk towards her. He stopped to pat the girl on the head. Soifon could feel the tears coming as her strides towards him became larger. She tackled him to the ground and began to cry into his chest. He began to massage her back back as she kept crying. "Kurosaki...I...I...You were.."

He cut her off, "It's ok I'm here now. You know I told you we'd be back before nightfall." He held her head to his chest until she stopped sobbing

The little girl had followed them and watched the entire ordeal. "See mommy, I told you I could lead you to him."

Soifon brought her head up meeting Ichigo s eyes, "Does that mean..." He cut her off again, "Yeah mommy, look you're girl has excellent tracking skills. Then he lifted Soifon up off of him and carried her bridal style to the blooming tree.

She decided not to question why the child didn't technically have a face. Ichigo set her down next to the tree. "So what brings you to this part of the Rukongai?" he asked. Soifon sat silently against the tree. "Why are you out here", he repeated, "What you don t trust me enough to look after our daughter? I told you that I'd have her back by the evening." His shihakusho was in perfect condition, no tears, nothing at all. Zangestu was also propped up against the tree. Ichigo sat down and began to focus at their daughter running around in circles chasing the hummingbirds and butterflies away from the tree. Since he set her down Ichigo took notice to Soifon's new look of pondering thought. "So what? You re going to give me the silent treatment? Don t be such a jackass." He said with his grin returning.

She replied, "No, it's just... oh nevermind it s not important anyway."

Persistent as he is he said, "If it's important enough to make you concerned then I must insist that you tell me what you're thinking. Then again, you tend to worry about anything and everything." His smile was downright irritating

"Be quiet idiot! I told you it s nothing." She could feel the blush forming on her cheeks. He began to stare into her eyes intently and then burst into laughter. The blush was turning a deeper shade of red. "What? I didn t do anything funny."

Ichigo regained his composure, "In the years we ve been together, you, the hard-ass queen of the ninjas, have only blushed in front of me when it concerns Yoruichi or our relationship. So tell me, which is it?"

_'Damn he has me figured out. Have I been that obvious in my dealings with him?'_ She stiffened up, and exhaled slowly, "When we first...when we.." She trailed off.

Ichigo sat up again, "When we first, what? I would like to think we have had a lot of firsts in our relationship." She sat silently for a few more seconds to work up the nerve to say it. Even though it was only a whisper, he heard the words clearly.

"Our first time."

"Oh! You mean that first time. So what about it?"

She took another deep breath, "After that, we laid in bed quietly until you said that you would protect me. All I did was look into your eyes. Then you said.."

"Forever."

"Yes, that." Soifon let her eyes fall to the ground.

"Yeah, what does this have to do with what you're asking?"

"Did you mean it?" He didn't answer. "Kurosaki?" She wondered why did she ask such a thing. Then the memories of the monster he had become and his brutal slaughter of countless Shinigami flooded her mind. She could feel the tears coming on when a touch on her chin created a moment of hesitance. Ichigo pulled her head up and pressed his lips to her own and pulled her into a closer embrace. What happened to the reality that she once knew? Where did it all go? When he released her lips from his own he asked, "Does that answer your question?"

"I guess it does." She readjusted herself so that he was up against the tree and so that she lay in between his legs. "I do love you." She said

He smiled, "I know. I love you too."

The child ran ver to them with her hands clutched together, "Lookie! Lookie! I caught one!"

Ichigo chuckled again, "Hey, you shouldn't be catching those. They help to make all of these pretty flowers. Do you want all of the flowers to go away?"

The girl's smile faded, "No I don't. I really like these flowers." Ichigo's arms reached around Soifon's body making the 'come here' gesture. The girl obeyed and brought her captive towards her father. A grin played on his lips as he placed his hands over hers, easing them open. The rainbow colored butterfly flew out of the girls hands. All three of them looked up as it flew away.

Soifon knew she was tired but she was going to have to ask him eventually, "Kurosaki. What is wrong with our daughter's face?"

His eyes narrowed in a questioning look, "What do you mean her face?"

"Her face. It has no defining features it s just white."

"C'mon Soifon you're trying to say you weren't cute aren t you?"

" What are you talking about?" She asked

He rested his hands on her stomach. "Well Yoruichi showed me a picture of you as a child. Aside from her messier hair and that small tooth, we agreed she looks just like you did. Soifon looked back to the girl to see that the white silhouette had been replaced with a face. 'She does look like I used too.' The girl looked exactly like her mother but like Ichigo had said, her hair was messier and layered. The canine tooth still crept out from behind her lip. '

_'I must have been seeing things.'_ Soifon thought to herself. "Alright now that that's not bothering me, I may as well ask." She rested her arms on his. "What's her name?"

Again Ichigo put on that questioning look. "What you even forgot your daughter's name. You must have hit your head." He began to rub the top of her head

She laughed, "I may have."

He chuckled again, "Why don't you tell her your name dear?"

The girl giggled then stood up smiling, "M'kay daddy." She spun around full circle and bowed at Soifon and Ichigo. "My name is Kurosaki, Ma..." Her face changed into a look of surprise then to an emotionless stare straight forward. Soifon immediately moved to help the girl but Ichigo's arms were holding her back. "Ichigo let go of me!"

She turned to face him only to find that his face also held the same expression. Their eyes shared a similar trait. They had the eyes of dead people. The world around her began to fade into a blur of colors then it all disappeared.

She had been brought back to her senses from the creature crushing her windpipe again. The wounds also returned, and with them, the pain. The struggle was over. Soifon had no more energy to use. There was no use in fighting against the inevitable anymore. She still loved what this thing holding her up by the neck used to be. Then she began to think of what could have been. The daughter, or maybe even a son. A family. Was it all meaningless? Soifon decided this was it. There wasn't any way out of it so she said it again.

"Kurosaki, I love you."

First came a bloodcurdling roar, then an audible snap and everything faded to black once more.

_'Was that my neck?'_ She thought._ 'So this is it. I've lived a full life. There's no chance of taking any of it back. I thought I had it figured out. Then he came into it and turned my world upside down. Never backing down, protecting those you care for; he instilled these ideals into me but he was forced to break them. I always knew he had something dark inside of him eager to get out. He's in there. I know it. I didn't even get to finish my dream. What was the girl's name. I'm only sorry that I couldn't stop the hollow he became. Who am I? What am I? At least I got to tell him those words one last time. Wait, what are words? What are...'_

Her mind couldn t process anything anymore. Memories faded, dreams vanished, thoughts becoming hard to put together. Her mind was becoming a slate, bleached clean of everything.

Then finally, Emptiness

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Alright finally got this posted! I meant to do it nearly a month ago but my old computer's hard drive fried. Like it? Hate it? Constructive criticism? Leave a review. All will be appreciated and taken into consideration to improve my writing.


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